Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 109 THE door industry journal summer 2023 Doorsets, Fire Doors, Safety & Security Smoke Inhalation Injury Smoke inhalation injury is caused by breathing in the fumes from an indoor fire. You’ll find as many as 150 toxic compounds in smoke. Some include superheated carbon monoxide (CO), phosgene, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), formaldehyde, and acrylonitriles. Inhalation of these harmful vapours and particles can cause thermal damage to your upper airway and chemical damage to your whole respiratory tract. According to the BJA Education journal, smoke inhalation injury causes respiratory complications in 73% of fire-incident survivors and 20% suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Did you know a frightening 40% of house fire victims who don’t suffer any burns will die solely from smoke inhalation? After only minutes, smoke inhalation injury quickly becomes a more complicated medical issue than dealing with burns alone, increasing the mortality rate of burn patients by 30% to 40%. Stopping the Spread of Smoke Smoke can spread through a building at an alarming speed. The smoke from a fire wants to rise, but in a building, the smoke becomes restricted by the ceiling, so instead of moving upwards, it spreads outwards in all directions. Smoke is stealthy and will find its way through gaps — from holes in walls and ceilings to cracks in floors and around doors. Therefore, it’s imperative to prevent the passage of smoke between occupancies and high-risk areas of a building as much as possible. A legal requirement in many residential and commercial buildings, fire doors can typically hold back a fire for at least thirty minutes. Fire doors slow the progress of fire and smoke, giving the occupants enough time to escape and are necessary now in more multi-occupancy buildings since The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force in January. Fire-Rated Doorsets A complete, engineered assembly or doorset, a fire door includes the door leaf, frame, any glazing, door hardware and intumescent seals. For a fire door to be certified, it must be tested in a test furnace with all of its compatible components in place. It’s also critical that when fitted, fire doors be inspected regularly by a ‘responsible person’ to ensure the doorset works as it should and all its components are maintained. A vital part of a fire door, intumescent seals secure the door’s edges when exposed to extreme heat, stopping the fire from spreading as quickly. Without quality fire door seals, a fire door would soon fail, compromising the whole building and everyone in it. Smoke Seals Save Lives Smoke is deadly. Preventing its passage is so crucial in the event of a fire, the critical role of fire and smoke seals simply can’t be overstated. While many intumescent seals have a minimum fire resistance of thirty minutes, not all meet the additional Building Regulation’s smoke classification. To achieve the BS EN 1634-3 standard, smoke seals undergo a stringent air leakage test to ensure that toxic smoke can’t spread beyond the door for at least thirty minutes. How ZEROplus Can Help To help reduce the 50% to 80% of fire-related deaths caused by smoke inhalation and provide your fire doors with the highest level of fire safety, you need seals that meet the additional smoke classification. At ZEROplus, we’re proud to say we have a vast range of door seals that have achieved the BS EN 1634-3 smoke standard. And our wealth of knowledge and experience with fire-rated door hardware means our team are always here to help you find the fire and smoketested products you need. www.zeroplus.co.uk
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